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Merpeople
Merpeople are a race of aquatic beings with the head and torso of a human and the tail of a fish below the waist. Anatomy & Biology Their upper bodies consist of a torso, arms and a head resembling that of a human, right down to hair and physique. Their skin is thick enough where a simple combat knife blade would bend if someone were to try to stab them. Depending on what parts of the ocean they inherit from, their tail colors and designs can differ wildly, from something resembling an Alaskan Cod to an Indonesian Tiger Fish. Their physique is strong, having spent most of their lives swimming and training for combat. Despite living underwater, they can breathe air just as easily. History Since the beginning of life on Earth, merpeople have fought for their survival and dominance of the ocean. So much so that they began to build their society based around fighting. Many warrior clans rose up to fame from this, like the Sakana Tatakau and the Red Morays. When humans began to fare the seas, they hunted merpeople down, thinking they were a rare kind of fish. Several fights broke out between sailors and merpeople because of this, with merpeople usually being the victor. After many skirmishes, the two species finally declared peace between each other through the Treaty of Atlantic. Despite this, however, many clan still hold a grudge against humanity to this very day, and would often get into conflicts with them if they felt they were in their territory. By the middle of the 20th Century, the USSR began annexing undersea kingdoms and tribes in an effort to gain an edge over the NATO allies. Those that fell under the Soviet banner had their whole social structure changed. Men were now in charge, and their homes and lives became more militaristic than ever before. Those seeking refuge from the Communist party, or those who chose to live a non-warrior lifestyle, fled to the surface, where they would get around by wheelchairs. Because of the rather sizable influx of fleeing merpeople, refugee camps began popping up all over seaside cities like Miami and San Francisco, as the local governments were sorting out citizenships. By the mid 1980's, most merpeople were finally granted full US Citizenship, and were a common sight in seaside towns and cities. Postwar, the clans who don't hold this grudge tend to lend a helping hand to settlements by the ocean by bringing them food and helping them navigate through safer waters. Those who were unfortunate enough to be caught in the fallout during the Annihilation War were mutated into Leviathans. Affects on pop culture * Even before migrating to land, merpeople culture was heavily romanticized by people living on land, often through books and film. These works were often criticized by actual merpeople, saying it was a misrepresentation of their culture. * By the early 1980's, seaside cities went nuts with the mermaid aesthetic. Most notable cities were Miami and Tokyo, who held annual mermaid parades to celebrate mermaid culture all the way up until the Annihilation War. * A new wave group was formed in 1980 called Fantasea, which was comprised of merpeople. Their hit single, "Heaven is Beneath the Waves", ranked high on the charts for several years, and they would go on to do a live duet rendition of "Land of Confusion" with Genesis. * In 1995, shortly after making Pulp Fiction, film director Quentin Tarantino made his own modern rendition of Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid. Despite getting very good reviews, the film was criticized for the lead actress not being a real mermaid, and for having several additions to the story that felt unnecessary . Category:Races